A thorough and ongoing investigation of what your competition are up to and how they are performing is time consuming, but critical. It should never be side-lined as a ‘nice to have’. Both threats and opportunities can be highlighted, and action taken, whilst there’s still time to do so.

A competitor analysis report should include comprehensive detail relating to products and services offered (including added value) and research from the customer’s perspective. There are various tools we use to interrogate competitors’ website performance and features, general online presence and their marketing efforts, including use of advertising.

More manual efforts can be as simple as monitoring your competitors’ social media activities, but ideally should go to the levels of ‘mystery shopper’ activity and win/loss analysis to have a rounded view of not just their offering, but their customer service processes and how they are perceived by their customers.

Obtaining and recording this information and continually monitoring the competition in your marketplace will ensure your business stays ahead of the game.